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C-Tran drivers work without contract

Mediation has begun; other deals due to expire in spring

The Columbian
Published: February 28, 2011, 12:00am

Two groups of C-Tran employees, including 243 drivers, have been working without a contract since last year.

Two other smaller bargaining units are due to see their contracts expire this spring, barring new agreements with C-Tran’s board of directors.

C-Tran spokesman Scott Patterson said Clark County’s transit agency is already in mediation with the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 757 representing bus operators. That contract, which normally runs for three years, expired at the end of August.

Patterson did not disclose the terms sought by either party, and ATU representative Jonathan Hunt did not return phone calls.

“Those negotiations are ongoing,” Patterson said.

Besides the operators, Patterson said 50 maintenance employees have been working without a contract since the end of 2009.

Employees covered by the contracts have sacrificed cost-of-living adjustments since the contracts expired, he said. He noted that positions that aren’t represented by collective bargaining units have also gone without merit or cost-of-living adjustments since 2009.

A contract covering 30 members of a clerical group represented by the ATU expires April 30, Patterson said. A contract covering eight paratransit dispatchers is due to expire May 31, he said.

The agency has struggled in the face of the economic recession.

A sales tax of 0.5 percent generates almost two-thirds of C-Tran’s revenue, and sales receipts have taken a hit during the recession.

C-Tran also is still feeling the effect of the repeal of the state’s motor vehicle excise tax in 2000, when C- Tran and other transit agencies lost out on a source of revenue that directly matched the money raised by the local sales tax. C-Tran has steadily eaten into its reserves since then, while also experiencing increases in labor costs and demand for its C-Van paratransit service.

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